August reads and autumn plans

 I'll be honest, I didn't get a lot of reading done in August. This is down to lovely family visitors and other stuff I wanted to do... I love reading of course but I also love to do jigsaw puzzles, watch TV shows, cook, and then there's my current crop of tomatoes and a glut of apples to be dealt with. There's one thing, I'm never bored!

So, I read 4 books in August,

The Cat Who Caught a Killer - L.J. Shearer 

The Marlow Murder Club - Robert Thorogood 

Star Trek, Strange New Worlds: The High Country - John Jackson Miller

Several members of the Enterprise crew get stranded on a planet after a shuttle-craft crash. They all end up on different parts of the planet and we mainly follow Captain Pike as he gets embroiled in the business of the town he lands near. He soon discovers that technology is banned here and trying to use science as a way of making life easier is swiftly punished. It seems the planet is not ruled by the people who live there but by beings from elsewhere, not only that, the people he thinks are indigenous, are not. They have been kidnapped from their home planets: one of them was Earth and he knows this individual from when he was a teenager. There was a definite good sci-fi yarn lurking here in this plot, but I found it overly wordy and lacking in the trademark humour that's very apparent in the Strange New Worlds TV series. Still, it picked up about halfway through and was never less than readable. This is the first Strange New Worlds fiction book that's been published, there are two more and a fourth coming out this month I think. 

Happy After All - Maisey Yates.  I saw this reviewed on Lark's blog - HERE.

Amelia has retreated from a hectic life in LA, connected to the film and TV industry. She's a writer who has bought a rundown motel complex near the Joshua Tree NP in California, to do it up and run while she writes her romances. She knows she has run away from a couple of things that've happened to her and an unhappy childhood. Nathan walks into the motel looking for a place to write. It turns out he's a famous author of war thrillers, writing under a psuedonym, the two writers should get along but Nathan is uncommunicative to the point of being surly. Amelia senses a mutual attraction but also senses a determination in Nathan not to give way to it. So, the events of this book take place over several years and we watch as Amelia slowly breaks down Nathan's defenses. We're also drip-fed information about what happened to Amelia and eventually discover Nathan's tragic past. This is not a light romance, it deals with grief and loss and and how individuals cope with this. There is lightness, the old ladies who live in the hotel are a delight, and the setting, in the California desert, sounds very authentic. It is also quite spicy in places so beware of that if it's not your bag. Overall I enjoyed this one but found there was a bit too much repetitive introspection for my taste. I would certainly read more by this author though as the comedic style of writing suited my sense of humour.  

So, I know it's not officially autumn until the 21st. but our weather here in the UK has turned autumnal and as the weather forecast boffins treat the 1st. as autumn, who am to argue?

So these are a few possibles for me for the next two or three months:

 

As you can see, there are four of the British Library's weird stories books, I may just cherry-pick various stories from each of them. A reread of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, which I've been promising myself for several years, and book 2 of the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons.

Add to that I have an autumn folder on my Kindle Fire and a few ebooks I want to get to are:

Kraken - China Miéville 

Nephthys - Rachel Driscoll

The Nameless Ones - John Connolly

The Harbour Lights Mystery - Emylia Hall

The Mountains in the Sea - Ray Naylor

Babel - R.F. Kuang 

The Frozen People - Elly Griffiths

If I read half a dozen from the photo and this list combined then I will be a happy bunny. If not, it matters not. 

I hope you have some fun reading plans for autumn too? I also hope you're all keeping well and finding some good books to read.